Help with setting up Network

[Juice370]

Any help appreciated with this. I'm pretty new to networking so go easy.

I started out at 11am today with the intention of buying a new router to increase Sky broadband speeds and give me a faster network as I work from home and have never really been happy with the speeds, plus I'm adding a NAS shortly. 7 hours later I've read a lot of forums and product reviews and I'm really non the wiser, if I can actually upgrade the Sky equipment as I've read about the PPOA versus MER (I'm on PPOA) and I did the traceroute cmd test mentioned on another thread and I'm on Easynet.

I was ready to buy the top Billion modem/router but now I don't think it will work. Ideally I'd like to use Sky's service as its cheap but completely bypass their equipment regardless of their T&C's. I'll bend where required so I have full control and not Sky. They have already done the useless PirateBay restriction and now they want full control over the products you use, etc. Nah.

I've been with Sky for about 3 years, have the grey router which I think is the DG934G and I upgraded from basic to Sky Unlimited about 12 months ago. Before I upgraded I could download a movie and watch iPlayer at the same time. Since upgrading to Unlimited, iPlayer will not play when downloading a movie, its essentially gone worse and Sky fobbed me off. I've basically had enough and need to get it sorted.

From reading the speed test results on the forum mine seem pants in comparison:

In the Sky Admin panel they are: Downstream 2867 kbps, Line Attenuation 50 db, Noise Margin 6 db | Upstream 797 kbps, Line Attenuation 33 db, Noise Margin 10 db.

On your Speedtest they are: Download 2.35 Mb/s, Upload 0.632 Mb/s.

Any help appreciated and if you could point me in the right direction how to get my broadband speed increased by way of a modem and router in no particular set-up, plus get fast network speeds for the NAS that would be great.

Thanks
Ian

[Isitme]

It does not matter what router you buy, it is not going to increase your sync speed by much. You should be able to obtain about 5-6Mb with your attenuation but your noise margin is fairly low meaning there is interference on your line. First thing to do is to plug into your Test socket using only the ADSL cable supplied by Sky, take and post your stats. When the faceplate of the master socket is removed, check that any extensions you have are dead.
How to test your ADSL in the Master Test Socket - Sky User - The unofficial support forum for everything Sky!
If you do not have a Test socket, remove everything you have plugged into the phone, except the router, which should be plugged into the Master socket, again using the cable supplied by Sky, and post your stats.

When you sort out your line interference then we can talk about using another router and networking.

[Juice370]

Interesting Results ... Slave socket results are actually better than master socket results.

Sky Router is located in office, connected to slave socket 10M from Master socket - 3rd floor loft apartment. Connected via 5e ethernet cable, never wireless. There is no test socket on master as its an all-in-one satellite, radio, phone. I ran tests at master and slave phone sockets using same filter and 1M lead.

Master Socket:




SkyUser SpeedTest results from Master Socket were: 1.99 M/bs Download, forgot to screengrab it sorry.



Slave Socket: (10M from Master)







Uswitch comparison of 2 Sky users 1/2 mile from my postcode and within approx 200 yards of each other. User 1 = 1.1 M/bs | User 2 = 7.9 M/bs. How such a big difference?






Any advice, recommendations how to:

a) Get the speeds up so I can increase work productivity and once again DL and watch iPlayer at same time?
b) What to say to Sky to do this?
c) What equipment if any will improve this. Again, I'm happy to scrap the Sky router and replace with a different brand.


And it seems I'm not alone with crappy Sky speeds: Sky User - Sky Broadband Unlimited


Appreciate any help

Thanks
Ian

[Isitme]

If you do not have a Test socket, try removing the ring wire. This can cause a lot of interference and is not usually required when you are using filters. The ring wire is the wire connected to the number 3 terminal behind the faceplate. It is usually orange but not always. It should only be necessary to remove it on the Master, but remove it in your extension as well to be sure. Try that, then take your stats again, from both sockets.

I'm afraid these modern combination outlets can cause problems with broadband, I don't know why, probably some cross talk between the wires which are usually close together.

The slow one obviously has a lot of interference on the line or is badly set up. Looking at the one in the top left corner (13mb) it is probably closer to the exchange so should have a higher speed than the second one.

[Juice370]

Hi Tom, apologies for the delay.

The orange wire is the one on the right off this socket. You'll see the numbers above on the socket. How is the wire removed on this socket? I've tried lifting the plastic locator but the wire is not budging.




Thanks for your help
Ian

[NewsreadeR]

Normally pins 2 and 5 are the main phone line, and they are normally blue/white and white/blue.

What colours are in pins 2 and 5?

[Isitme]

It is difficult to say what wire has been used for the ring wire. Is there a number on the connectors the wires are fixed to. However this is not the master socket, it looks like an extension. To have effect the ring wire must be disconnected in the master socket, where it picks up the voltage. Can you determine where the master socket is? If it is a fairly new build it may be an external type (XNTE).

[Juice370]

6 pins total and 4 wires, but no indication of which wires go to which pins.

Left to right as on image above:

white/blue | blue/white | white/orange | orange/white

6 5 4 3 2 1

Speeds are topped at 2.35 Mb/s. I'll do whatever it takes to get them increased.

Any more thoughts; remove a wire, ring Sky, new modem/router?

Thanks

[NewsreadeR]

I have a socket like that in our front room, to the left of it on the other wall, there is the actual master socket.

Is this the only socket you have in the house?

[Juice370]

Yeah just this one socket.